CHAPTER XXII.
CONCLUSION.
His sudden appearance took the family completely by surprise. It took somebody else, who was not a member of the family, also by surprise, and that was Mr. Graves, the boat-builder, who had "just dropped in" at that early hour, to inquire if Mrs. Jennings had heard any news of Bob. He felt a great interest in him, he said, and was anxious to know what had become of him. The fisher-boy's mother, however, very soon discovered that he did not care so much about the welfare of her son as about the money Bob had promised to pay him for the Go Ahead No. 2.
Ever since the fisher-boy's disappearance, Mr. Graves had been a very miserable man. He had come to the conclusion that he had been sadly deceived in his customer, and he believed that Bob had run away to avoid paying the debt. This was enough to put him on nettles.
Although he was well off in the world, he was very "close" in all his dealings, and, in his eyes, twenty-six dollars was a small fortune. He had credited Bob for the skiff, not because he wished to assist him, but for the reason that he believed his customer's promise to pay was almost as good as the money. If the fisher-boy had been able to pay cash for his boat, he could have bought her for twenty dollars; but when the boat-builder found that he was expected to wait three months for his money, he had added five dollars to the price of the skiff for interest. It made no difference to him that he was rich and Bob poor. That was no fault of his. He had a right to make as much money as he could, and this was a lawful business transaction.
"I am sorry that it has turned out this way, Mrs. Jennings," said the boat-builder, "but I can't help it. Of course you can't expect me to build fine skiffs, like the Go Ahead No. 2, for nothing! I couldn't make a living by doing business that way."
"I am very sorry that you let Bob have that boat on credit," said Mrs. Jennings.
"So am I, when it is too late. If the boat was here, and in good order, I would take it back; but as it is gone, you, of course, will acknowledge that I ought to be paid for it. I didn't suppose that a boy who bore the reputation of your Robert would become such a rascal! It is plain enough to me that he has run away. I'll warrant that he is in South America by this time, and that you'll never see him——Bobby Jennings!"
The fisher-boy's appearance at this moment proved to Mr. Graves's entire satisfaction that he was not in South America. He stood in the door-way, flushed with excitement, breathing hard after his rapid run, and looking first at his mother and then at the boat-builder, who did not act as if he thought him a very great rascal. As soon as Bob had greeted his mother, he arose and shook hands with him, exclaiming—